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The Austin Infrastructure Academy will receive more than $2.5 million in city funds over the coming years to support the workforce training and jobs program as several major public projects continue their development.
“Part of our goal was to evolve the economic development paradigm where it’s not just about, at the end of every year, counting the number of new jobs created, but counting the number of people we’re actually getting into jobs that are Austinites,” Mayor Kirk Watson said.
Building a ready and skilled workforce for Central Texas businesses is at the heart of our work.
Workforce Solutions Capital Area leads the regional workforce system by bringing employers, educators, child care providers and community partners together, aligning resources and strengthening talent pipelines that connect local people to local jobs.
Our FY25 Impact Report shows what that looks like in action—from career training and hiring events to child care and career exploration—and the reach of that work across Austin and Travis County.
FY25 highlights include:
But the numbers are only part of the story.
This year’s report highlights the partnerships and people behind that impact—from regional healthcare employers working together to more than double the number of local nursing graduates over five years, to child care providers strengthening the quality and stability of early learning, to job seekers finding new careers and economic opportunity.
The report also looks ahead at how major initiatives including the Austin Infrastructure Academy and Raising Travis County are building on this foundation, aligning new investments around two of the region’s biggest workforce challenges: preparing talent for major infrastructure investments and expanding access to affordable child care.
Explore the FY25 Impact Report to see the data, partnerships and stories behind our work to support and connect local people to local jobs.
When Christelle moved to Austin as a single mom, she was starting over in a new city without family nearby. Ready to take the next step in her healthcare career, she found Workforce Solutions Capital Area and connected with a career advisor who helped her move forward.
Christelle completed training, earned her certification and was hired within two months into a career she describes as rewarding, with good pay and a positive environment. Now, she’s already thinking about her next goal and continuing her education.
Through it all, Christelle says having a career advisor who communicated with her and was there to answer questions made a difference. Her message to anyone trying to get back on their feet: keep reaching out, don’t give up hope and keep pushing.
Find a job, explore training, and take the next step toward a career in Austin/Travis County.
Central Texas’ healthcare workforce continues to grow, but so does the challenge of preparing enough people to meet the region’s needs.
At the second annual State of Healthcare Workforce Forum, Workforce Solutions Capital Area, Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area, and St. David’s Foundation brought together healthcare employers, educators, workforce leaders, funders and community partners to take stock of the progress of the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership and focus on what comes next.
From state policy and artificial intelligence to education capacity, career pathways and student supports, speakers returned throughout the morning to a common challenge: Central Texas has strong interest in healthcare careers and strategies that are already building the workforce. The opportunity now is to remove the barriers that keep those strategies from reaching more people.
Texas State Rep. Donna Howard, a former critical care nurse, opened her keynote by reflecting on a healthcare workforce challenge she has been working on since shortly after joining the Legislature nearly 20 years ago.
At the time, state projections were already warning that demand for nurses could outpace supply. While Texas has since invested in loan forgiveness, nursing education and other workforce strategies, Howard said the underlying challenge remains — and now extends well beyond nursing to other healthcare occupations.
Recent legislative action has begun tackling some of the structural barriers behind that shortage. Howard highlighted new efforts to coordinate statewide healthcare workforce data, study regional systems for clinical placements, streamline nursing-school applications, support nurse preceptors and expand faculty loan repayment and nursing-education innovation grants.
But she also emphasized that education and workforce systems need to connect more intentionally.
Howard said she plans to continue pursuing policies that align high school and dual-credit healthcare programs with college requirements and industry-recognized credentials, helping students stack credentials instead of repeating coursework. She also called for stronger coordination between state agencies and local workforce boards.
And she pointed to Central Texas as evidence of what that coordination can accomplish.
Through efforts such as the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership, Howard said the region is demonstrating a model for addressing healthcare workforce shortages through collaboration among workforce organizations, employers and education partners.
The conversations that followed reinforced that Central Texas does not have a shortage of people interested in healthcare careers.
Austin Community College has approximately 9,000 students on pre-health science pathways competing for about 1,100 available program slots. Texas State University Round Rock reported approximately 600 nursing applicants for 150 slots.
The constraint is often what happens in between — particularly clinical placements, simulation space, faculty capacity and the cost of operating healthcare programs.
ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart said the college could potentially double healthcare-training capacity with sufficient clinical availability. Texas State Round Rock Vice President Dr. Julie Lessiter similarly pointed to simulation labs and clinical rotations as major constraints on expanding nursing enrollment.
That same challenge surfaced in the regional workforce outlook. Workforce Solutions leaders noted that healthcare employment has grown 28% since 2019, with another 14,000 new jobs projected by 2031 before accounting for turnover. Roughly 1,800 RN and LVN openings are projected each year, while employers also need large numbers of medical assistants, nursing assistants and other entry-level workers.
The region has already made progress: collaboration among employers, educators and workforce partners has helped more than double the number of nursing graduates over the past five years.
Another takeaway from the forum was that tuition alone does not determine whether someone completes healthcare training.
Working adults and first-generation students may be balancing housing costs, transportation, child care, food insecurity and lost wages while completing coursework and required clinical hours.
The impact of addressing those barriers is measurable. ACC reported that students receiving child care scholarships have an 81% persistence rate, compared with approximately 60% overall. Students using the college’s food pantry also persist at rates above the college average.
Capital IDEA Executive Director Alyssia Palacios-Woods, CFRE shared a similar whole-person approach. The organization currently supports approximately 1,000 students through tuition, fees, books, wraparound assistance and career navigation, with 85% pursuing healthcare careers.
These examples reinforce that transportation, child care, emergency assistance and career navigation are not separate from workforce development. They can determine whether an interested student ultimately becomes a qualified healthcare professional.
The forum also highlighted the importance of building career pathways that do not depend on a single entry point.
Healthcare apprenticeships have expanded earn-and-learn options beyond traditional skilled trades. Workforce Solutions leaders highlighted the region’s certified medical assistant apprenticeship as an especially popular model that has created jobs while allowing people to earn wages during training.
Regional partners are also working to create clearer pathways from entry-level healthcare occupations into higher-wage careers through stackable credentials and credit for prior learning.
And those pathways are starting earlier.
The Central Texas Healthcare Academy, developed by the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership, is designed so students can begin healthcare training while still in high school. Students will complete their pre-requisites and co-requisites for pathways including nursing, surgical tech, radiology tech, and health information technology.
The forum also looked ahead to how artificial intelligence could reshape healthcare work.
Panelists described AI tools already helping clinicians draft documentation, screen job applicants and manage administrative work. The common thread was less about replacing healthcare professionals and more about giving clinicians time back for patients, teams and higher-value work.
That transition will require new skills. Panelists emphasized AI literacy, understanding when to trust or verify a tool’s output, change management and strong human oversight. They also stressed that governance, privacy and transparency will be essential as AI becomes more integrated into healthcare settings.
The goal, as the panel described it, is augmentation rather than replacement: using technology to support clinical expertise, improve patient experience and help healthcare professionals spend more time doing the work that brought them into the field.
Bastrop County Public Health Department Executive Director Donna Nichols offered a clear example of what these ideas look like in practice, particularly in rural communities.
Through the Create a Job, Save a Job initiative, funded by St. David’s Foundation, 170 Bastrop County residents enrolled in healthcare training during the program’s first year. 102 graduated and 77 secured employment, including EMTs, CNAs, phlebotomists, mental health counselors, RNs and LVNs — many in Bastrop County itself.
The program paired approximately $340,000 in tuition assistance with support for transportation, equipment, housing and other barriers. Its case-management approach was also identified as a key part of helping participants stay on track.
The example shows what can happen when identifying workforce demand is followed by building pathways and helping people successfully move through them.
The forum did not point to one solution for Central Texas’ healthcare workforce challenge. It pointed to many: more clinical placements, expanded simulation capacity, apprenticeships, stronger K–12 pathways, stackable credentials, student supports, employer engagement and better coordination across institutions.
What connects those strategies is partnership.
As the forum closed, Workforce Solutions leaders emphasized that some of the region’s strongest progress has come from bringing employers that normally compete for talent to the same table with educators, community organizations and workforce partners to solve shared problems.
The Central Texas Healthcare Partnership is one way the region is putting that collaborative approach into practice.
The opportunity now is to take what is working and build it to scale — creating a stronger, more connected healthcare workforce system that can keep pace with the needs of a growing region.
Two recently released resources provide additional context behind many of the workforce trends discussed at the forum.
Central Texas Healthcare Workforce Needs and Education Pipeline Study: A comprehensive look at healthcare workforce demand, employer needs, education capacity and county-level opportunities across the 10-county Central Texas region.
Texas Talent Experts: Healthcare Industry Snapshot: A quick-read look at six priority healthcare occupations, career pathways and examples of regional workforce collaboration.
Healthcare remains one of Central Texas’ most in-demand industries, creating career opportunities across a range of occupations, education levels and wages. Meeting continued employer demand will require strong career pathways and coordination across healthcare employers, educators and workforce partners.
Key findings from the report include:
Our newest Texas Talent Experts white paper—developed in partnership with Opportunity Austin and Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area—explores healthcare workforce trends, in-demand career pathways and regional efforts to prepare the next generation of healthcare talent.
Highlights include the Central Texas Healthcare Academy, developed by the Central Texas Healthcare Partnership convened by Workforce Solutions Capital Area, along with other investments in hands-on career exploration and healthcare training across the region.
Read the white paper and learn how Central Texas is building the workforce needed to support a growing economy.
Almost two years after Travis County residents raised their own taxes in pursuit of better childcare, the millions are starting to make a difference.
However, providers say there’s still a long way to go to fix a broken system.
Travis County voters approved a property tax increase in November 2024 that will generate about $75 million annually for after-school and summer programs and childcare. To date, the tax funded initiative, dubbed Raising Travis County, has allocated more than $51 million to expand early childhood education scholarships, childcare providers and out-of-school programming.
From connecting with qualified candidates to staying engaged with industry partners, Austin Water has found value in its partnership with Workforce Solutions Capital Area.
Human Resources Specialist Lesli Martinez shares how hiring events, on-the-spot interviews and Mobility & Infrastructure sector workgroups help Austin Water recruit for critical positions, connect with experienced talent and stay informed about workforce programs and opportunities.
See the Austin Infrastructure Academy’s latest impact reports.
Travis County is putting more money and seats behind afterschool care this fall, part of a push to close a shortage leaving many families without options.
Only 23% of the county’s priority-population students have access to a seat, and just 17% can get into a program that runs all five days, according to a new out-of-school time (OST) landscape analysis from the Andy Roddick Foundation, funded by Raising Travis County (RTC). More than 1,100 kids are waitlisted.
This quarter, the Austin Infrastructure Academy continued its focus on building sustainable, demand-aligned career pathways that connect Austinites to opportunities created through major capital projects across Austin. By convening employers, education partners, workforce organizations, and community partners, the Academy is helping align future workforce needs with the training, outreach, and support systems needed to prepare local talent for careers in transportation, construction, and other skilled trades.
Through intentional collaboration across the workforce ecosystem, the Academy is working to ensure Austin residents—including high school graduates, career changers, and other local job seekers—have access to clear pathways, the right resources, and the skills needed to launch successful careers, while employers have a stronger pipeline of prepared talent to support future projects.
The Austin Infrastructure Academy is a local coalition of partners in government, education, business, and the community working together to grow Austin’s workforce in transportation, construction, and other skilled trades.
We connect local people to training and careers that power Austin’s growth—removing barriers so they can make a living, making Austin.
What we do:
Workforce Solutions Capital Area outcomes only
| Year 2, Quarter 1 April 2026 – June 2026 | Total March 2025 – June 2026 | |
| Residents Connected to Career Opportunities | 295 | 1,856 |
| Participants Enrolled in the Austin Infrastructure Academy1 | 572 | 1,654 |
| Training Scholarships Awarded | 43 | 210 |
| Residents Employed or Advancing Their Careers2 | 36 | 142 |
1 Enrolled participants have been accepted into the Austin Infrastructure Academy and receive individualized career navigation, with access to training, supportive services, and job placement assistance based on their needs.
2 Unemployment Insurance (UI) data typically reflects a two-quarter reporting delay
The Austin Infrastructure Academy has been named the recipient of the 2026 Workforce Excellence Award from the Texas Economic Development Council (TEDC). Since 2001, the award has recognized Texas communities that have implemented exceptional workforce initiatives, evaluating recipients on innovation, transferability, community commitment and leverage, measurable objectives, and secondary benefits.
The recognition reflects the Academy’s success as a regional partnership that strengthens both the workforce and the economy by preparing local residents for careers supporting Central Texas’ historic infrastructure investments.
| Job seekers attended | 204 |
| Additional job seekers registered with interest | 246 |
| Employers | 24 |
| Training providers | 8 |
At the May Expo, Tirone shared his experience returning to the workforce after being laid off from a manufacturing technician position. He credited Workforce Solutions staff with helping him navigate technology barriers and his job search.
Since filming the story, Tirone has found new employment.
Austin Infrastructure Academy convening Austin Transit Partnership, Stacy Witbeck, AECOM, Kiewit, and Sundt to prep for building the local talent pipeline to support the Austin Light Rail project.
The Austin Infrastructure Academy has launched workforce alignment meetings with major Capital Project partners, including Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Austin Light Rail, the Austin Convention Center (and more to come!), to better understand future workforce demand and identify entry-level career opportunities connected to these investments.
These conversations help forecast hiring needs, align training and talent pipelines, and ensure capital investments create meaningful pathways into mobility and infrastructure careers for Austin residents.
Help us build your future workforce. Connect with our team to share your hiring forecasts so we can recruit, train, and prepare local talent before your projects begin.
2. Equipping K–12 Partners to Inspire Future Careers
Strong career pathways begin long before students enter the workforce. This quarter, the Austin Infrastructure Academy expanded its support for educators and community partners by launching the K-12 Partner Toolkit.
The toolkit provides teachers, CTE directors, counselors, and community partners with ready-to-use resources—including access to Hype Kits, classroom presentations, career events, employer engagement opportunities, and career exploration materials—to help students discover careers in transportation, construction, and other skilled trades.
By equipping partners with these tools, we’re expanding access to career awareness and strengthening the pipeline of future mobility and infrastructure talent.
Student using our VR headset and monitor. Snapshot of simulations aligned with in-demand Mobility & Infrastructure careers: Automotive Services Technician, Electrician, Carpenter, Construction Laborer, HVAC Technician, Plumber, Pipefitter, and Steamfitter, and more!
The Austin Infrastructure Academy is convening Austin Community College and Workforce Solutions Capital Area Career Services staff to align services and create a seamless experience for students and career seekers. Together, partners are mapping programs, support services, referral processes, and organizational strengths to design a coordinated “front door” that makes it easier for individuals to access career coaching, training, supportive services, and employment opportunities.
This foundational work will help ensure future Academy participants experience a streamlined pathway from career exploration to training and employment while maximizing the strengths of each partner organization.
Austin’s 2024 onsite water reuse ordinance creates new operational requirements for large commercial and multifamily developments. To help employers prepare, Austin Water is leading the development of workforce training in partnership with Austin Community College, while the Austin Infrastructure Academy has provided framework to convene partners, impacted stakeholders, and employers to support implementation efforts.
Through this collaboration, employers can learn about the new requirements, available training opportunities, and potential funding resources to upskill existing workers, including facility managers, plumbers, and other building and water systems professionals. The initiative aims to help businesses successfully implement onsite water reuse systems while strengthening Austin’s water workforce. Training is anticipated to launch in fall 2026.
Update: Shortly after we filmed his story, Tirone connected with an employer at a Workforce Solutions job fair and found a new job.
Tirone knows how quickly life can change.
After being laid off from a manufacturing technician position, he suddenly found himself facing an unfamiliar job market. Like many experienced workers, he discovered that finding employment looked much different than it had years before.
“Being a little computer illiterate is a downfall… everything is computerized now,” he shared.
Unsure where to begin, Tirone turned to Workforce Solutions Capital Area.
From his very first visit to the East Career Center, he found more than job leads. He found people willing to answer questions, provide guidance, and help him navigate a process that initially felt overwhelming.
“When you’re laid off, it’s gut hitting,” Tirone said. “If you ain’t been down that road, it’s a rough road to go through.”
That support didn’t end after one visit.
As Tirone continued his job search, Workforce Solutions staff remained alongside him—connecting him with career guidance, hiring events, and additional resources as he worked toward his next opportunity. His journey reflects the coordinated support that helps many customers navigate periods of transition with confidence.
Today, he encourages others not to wait until they feel stuck.
“This is a great place for people who want a job. I think you should go to one of these [Workforce Solutions locations] and you can find something.”
For Tirone, Workforce Solutions became exactly that—a place to start again.
When asked to describe Workforce Solutions Capital Area in one word, his answer was simple:
“Best.”